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Gamera vs. Guiron | |
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Directed by | Noriaki Yuasa |
Produced by | Hidemasa Nagata |
Written by | Niisan Takahashi |
Starring | Nobuhiro Kajima Christopher Murphy Miyuki Akiyama Yuko Hamada |
Music by | Shunsuke Kikuchi |
Cinematography | Akira Kitazaki |
Editing by | Yoshiyuki Miyazaki |
Distributed by | Daiei |
Released | March 12, 1969 |
Running time | 82 minutes |
Budget | ¥24,000,000 |
Gross revenue | ¥???,???,??? |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Preceded by | Gamera vs. Viras |
Followed by | Gamera vs. Jiger |
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Controlled from the mysterious tenth planet, the immensely powerful Giant Demon Beast! The Earth is in danger! Launch the counter strategy, Gamera, you can do it!
(謎の第十惑星があやつる、すごい威力の大悪獣! 地球があぶない! がんばれガメラ、逆転作戦開始せよ!) |
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— Japanese tagline |
Gamera vs. Guiron (ガメラ対大悪獣ギロン?, lit. Gamera vs. Giant Monster Guiron), also known as Attack of the Monsters, is a 1969 daikaiju eiga (giant-monster movie), the fifth entry in the Gamera series. It was one of five Gamera films to be featured as episodes of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is currently in the Public Domain. Gamera Tai Daiakaijū Guiron
This film's antagonist, Guiron (named for "guillotine"), is a giant frog-like monster with a knife on his head, which is 100 times harder than diamond. Along the knife is a hole that shoots small magnetic shuriken. He can also jump really high.
Plot[]
Two boys, Akio and Tom, spy in their telescope a spaceship that descends into a nearby field. With Akio's little sister Tomoko in tow, they bicycle out the next day to investigate. The boys enter the spaceship and accidentally take off to an alien planet named Terra, while Tomoko is left behind, unable to convince any adults (except kindly but eccentric police officer Kondo) of the boys' misadventure. On Terra, the boys encounter Barbella and Flobella - two beautiful but sinister Terran women - and their kaiju Guiron, who kills Space Gyaos. Gamera eventually tracks the boys to Terra and kills Guiron. The Terran women are killed and Gamera, Akio, and Tom go back to Earth.
Cast[]
- Nobuhiro Kashima as Akio
- Christopher Murphy as Tom
- Miyuki Akiyama as Tomoko
- Eiji Funakoshi as Dr. Shiga
- Kon Omura as Officer "Kon" Kondo
- Yuko Hamada as Kuniko, Akio's mother
- Edith Hansen as Elza, Tom's mother
- Reiko Kasahara as Florbella, Terran
- Hiroko Kai as Barbella, Terran
- Sho Natsuki as Newspaper reporter
- Teppei Endo as Newspaper reporter
- Kita Daihachi as Policeman
- Umenosuke Izumi as Gamera
- Tsutomu Nakata as Newspaper reporter
- Masaki Minamido as Observatory technician
Alternate titles[]
- Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast Guiron (literal Japanese title)
- Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast X (ガメラ対大悪獣X Gamera tai Dai Aku-jū Ekkusu, early Japanese title)
- Gamera vs. Guiron: Giant Evil Monster (English Japanese DVD title)
- Attack of the Monsters (United States)
- Gamera vs. Guillon (United States video title)
- King Kong Against Godzilla (King Kong contro Godzilla; Italy)
American release[]
Like the three previous Gamera films, Gamera vs. Guiron was not released theatrically in the continental United States, but was offered for television syndication by American International Television beginning in 1969, under the title Attack of the Monsters. As was the case with its release of Gamera vs. Viras, American International had the film dubbed into English at Titan Productions, Inc., and voice actor Bret Morrison was credited as the re-recording director. Due to content that would have been deemed too graphic for television, AI-TV drastically abbreviated the battle between Guiron and Space Gyaos, which in the Japanese version ended with Guiron completely eviscerating his foe. In the re-worked sequence, Space Gyaos merely flies away after losing a foot in battle.
In the 1980s, the North American video and TV rights to five Gamera films, including Gamera vs. Guiron, were acquired by Sandy Frank Film Syndication. Frank's company used a previously-unreleased English-dubbed version of Gamera vs. Guiron, produced by Pedro Productions for Daiei, as a basis for its version. New credits and onscreen text were affixed to the film, which otherwise remained unedited. Sandy Frank's Gamera vs. Guiron debuted in the U.S. in syndication in 1987; a VHS release from Celebrity Home Entertainment followed the next year. This version of the film was twice lampooned on the movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was first riffed on the show in 1989, during the series' original broadcast on the Minneapolis-area station KTMA. A new episode featuring the movie was produced in 1991 for the show's third season on the Comedy Central cable network. The latter version was one of thirty episodes repurposed into two hour-long shows on The Mystery Science Theater Hour, which began airing in 1993.
The film has been released on DVD in its original Japanese audio with English subtitles by Shout! Factory and Mill Creek Entertainment. AI-TV's Attack of the Monsters been released on DVD by countless different companies who assumed it was in the public domain.
Production[]
Gamera vs. Guiron was theatrically released in Japan on a double bill with Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts and the original plan was, a new kaiju called Monga was to appear in this film alongside Guiron, but due to time and budget limitations, the Gyaos suit and props from Gamera vs. Gyaos were simply painted silver and used as Space Gyaos.
Alternate titles[]
- Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast Guiron
Videos[]
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Trivia[]
- Space Gyaos wasn't going to be in this film; a new kaiju named Monga was going to be in it, but due to time and budget limitations, the Gyaos props from Gamera vs. Gyaos were simply painted silver.
- In the Alpha Video U.S. release, the scene where Space Gyaos was killed by Guiron was removed for its graphic content.
- This is the first film to feature Umenosuke Izumi as Gamera's suit actor. Izumi would reprise the role in the following year's Gamera vs. Jiger.